Archives for January 2017

Andover voters will head to the polls in May to decide a school bond issue. Yesterday, the Andover School Board authorized the bond package, which would fund building a new high school and an elementary school. It’ll be a two part question on the ballot. The first part regarding the 169 million dollar bond issue/ A second question will ask to authorize nearly 209 million dollars in bonds for a new career and professional studies center, a new swimming pool, and new astroturf for the high school baseball and softball fields.

In Sedgwick County, a total of six people were injured in a crash near Garden Plain on Monday. It happened around 4:30 p.m. near 311th Street West and 6th Street South. Deputies say three people had minor injuries, while two had serious injuries and a sixth person suffered critical injuries in the crash. No other details are available.

A Wichita man has pleaded guilty to robbing a bank and to brandishing a firearm during a confrontation with a jewelry store owner. The U.S. attorney’s office says 25-year-old Terence Thomas entered the pleas Monday. Prosecutors say Thomas admitted he had a knife when he approached the jewelry store owner and his wife as they arrived for work. Prosecutors say Thomas also robbed a Fidelity Bank branch a month earlier. Sentencing is set for April 19.

A Missouri-based utility is seeking to rescue its proposal to buy Kansas’ largest electric company amid strong criticism that it could hurt consumers. The Kansas Corporation Commission opened hearings Monday on Great Plains Energy’s proposed $12.2 billion acquisition of Westar Energy. An attorney representing the firms told the state regulators that the deal would create nearly $2 billion in efficiencies over the next decade.

A number of Kansans gathered Sunday to honor our state, which is celebrating its 156th birthday. The Kansas Day celebration was held at the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Society Museum downtown. It included a sunflower birthday cake and lots of period music, including our state song, Home On The Range. The music was provided by the Prairie Rose Wranglers.

Hundreds of people gathered in Wichita for protests of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. One of the rallies took place at the Islamic Society of Wichita in Northeast Wichita. Leaders of the society say they were not involved in planning the demonstration and that they were surprised when people just started showing up. In another effort, about 200 people gathered at Wichita’s Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport holding signs and chanting. Trump is defending the temprorary ban, saying it is a matter of national security, not religion or race. Trump also says the countries that Trump banned were also picked out by the Obama administration last year.

Health leaders in Sedgwick County say heroin overdose deaths continue to rise around the Wichita region. Yesterday, the distriact attorney, the Derby Police Chief, and the director of the regional forensic science center held a news conference. Across the country, more than 13-thousand people died last year as a result of a heroin overdose. That number does not include overdose deaths due to prescription pain killers.

Kansas Republicans are meeting Feb. 9 and Democrats are convening two days later to pick their nominees for the congressional seat formerly held by CIA Director Mike Pompeo. The special GOP convention in the 4th Congressional District will be in Wichita at Friends University and starts at 7 p.m. Democrats plan to have their convention at 1 p.m. Feb. 11 at the Sedgwick County Courthouse in Wichita.

U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts says the first hearing on the 2018 farm bill will be held in Manhattan in February. Roberts is chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry. He announced Wednesday that the first hearing in the country on the farm bill will be Feb. 23 on the Kansas State campus.

A Kansas legislator has confirmed that he inadvertently left a loaded handgun under a table in a Statehouse committee room that is open to the public. Republican Rep. Willie Dove said Thursday that the incident occurred after a Tuesday’s meeting and that a secretary found the gun minutes later. Dove says he has a concealed carry permit and took the gun out of his leg holster because of a swollen ankle. Firearms are allowed at the Kansas Statehouse.